He began his career as a carver's assistant, and before beginning the regular study of plastic art he passed through a long apprenticeship in architectural decoration working from 1869 for the firm of Farmer & Brindley.

[2][4] In 1881, he was admitted to the Royal Academy schools, where in 1883 he won the gold medal and the travelling scholarship with his relief of Socrates teaching the People in the Agora.

[2] Bates's primary skill lay in the composition and sculpting of relief sculpture, and it is in this medium that he achieved his most technically and aesthetically refined work.

In 1890 this was received as a "fresh reading of the subject, and instead of the customary elf-like or voluptuous woman [Bates] has shown a tender, very gentle and happy maiden, whose features are charming".

The box she holds is an actual decorative casket made of ivory and gilt bronze and elaborately carved with scenes from the Pandora legend.

[8] One of his final commissions was a large bronze statue of Queen Victoria unveiled in Albert Square in Dundee shortly after his death.

[5] The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica wrote: "The portrait-busts of Harry Bates are good pieces of realism: strong, yet delicate in technique, and excellent in character.

Both through his innovative use of polychromy and his allusive subject matter, he is understood to be one of primary representatives of international Symbolism within British sculpture.